Wasatch Cache and Uinta National Forests

In partnership with: Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center, The Friends of the Utah Avalanche Center and Utah State Parks.

Avalanche advisory

Saturday, April 12, 2003

Good Morning. This is Craig Gordon with the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center with your avalanche and mountain weather advisory for the western Uinta Mountains including but not limited to the terrain surrounding Chalk Creek, Smith-Moorehouse, the Mirror Lake Highway, and Woodland. The avalanche danger could be slightly higher today on the Evanston side of the range as well as near Daniels, as these regions have a shallower snowpack.

This advisory is made possible through a generous grant provided by Utah State Parks. This will be the last weekend of regularly scheduled advisories.

Today is Saturday, April 12, 2003, and it’s 7:30 in the morning.

Current Conditions:

High clouds began to roll in late last night and overnight low temperatures barely reached freezing even at the highest elevations. Southerly winds began to pick up early this morning with hourly wind speed averages in the 20’s and gusts in the 40’s along the exposed ridgelines. Good riding and turning conditions may be a bit hard to come by today, as the combination of clouds and warm temperatures have prevented a good, solid refreeze of the snowpack.

Avalanche Conditions:

The warm temperatures and lack of a bomber refreeze have me a bit concerned today, especially in terrain where the snowpack has remained shallow and weak all season. While the snow surface most likely received a shallow refreeze and will be supportable in the early morning hours, I don’t think this penetrated deep enough in the snowpack to really lock things up.

Yesterday my partner and I were finding that the lower layers in the snowpack were becoming quite damp and losing a lot of strength. This was most prevalent at mid elevations, though we were able to find this lack of strength above timberline in steep, rocky terrain as well. Several natural wet avalanches have occurred in steep, rocky terrain from afternoon heating in recent days and these slides were starting as small, wet point releases which were quickly stepped down into weak snow near the ground.

A good rule of thumb this time of year is to get on the snow early when it’s firm and supportable. If you find yourself sinking in much past your boot tops, it’s either time to change aspect or get off the snow entirely. Also be aware of natural signs of instability such as roller balls careening down the slope or small point release avalanches. As the day progresses you’ll want to get off of and out from under any steep slope.

While the wind and cloud cover may help to squelch some of today’s avalanche activity, should the sun come out in earnest or if the winds mellow out a bit the avalanche danger could rise rapidly.

Bottom Line:

At all elevations the avalanche danger is generally LOW this morning but will rise to MODERATE with daytime heating on any steep, sun exposed slope.

In steep mid elevation terrain and in steep, rocky terrain above timberline the avalanche danger may rise to CONSIDERABLE.

Mountain Weather:

A warm, dry southwest flow will be over the region today and Sunday producing windy conditions and above average temperatures. Skies should become partly cloudy throughout the day allowing temperatures to climb into the upper 40’s at 10,000’ and into the lower to mid 50’s at 8,000’. Overnight lows will be near 40 degrees. Winds will generally be out of the south at speeds of 15-25 mph with higher gusts along the ridges. Sunday looks to be about the same, though winds could be a little stronger. Colder air will move into the area on Monday bringing us a good shot of snow that lingers into Tuesday evening. A break comes along on Wednesday and we should see another system work into the area late in the week.

General Information:

If you’re getting out and about please let us know what you’re seeing, especially if you see or trigger an avalanche. Call 1-800-662-4140, or 801-231-2170, or email to [email protected] or fax to 801-524-6301. Your observations could help to save someone’s life. I’ve received some great observations this past week and thanks to those of you who called in with timely snowpack and avalanche information. Please keep them coming!

We will be offering free snowmobile specific avalanche education this year. To schedule a talk and or a field day please call 801-231-2170.

The information in this advisory is from the U.S. Forest Service, which is solely responsible for its content.

This advisory describes general avalanche conditions and local variations always occur.

I will update this advisory by 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, April 13, 2003.

Thanks for calling